A couple months ago I started game development again. Which begs the question: What am I going to do about Crimson Crisis?For those who've been following along, Crimson Crisis has been in limbo. After setting up the Steam page, we got close to participating in one of Steam's Next Fests, but [READ MORE at https://blog.mrphilgames.com/crimson-crisis-where-weve-been-and-where-were-going]

I’m experimenting with using animation as a design tool.  Trying to get my ideas organized and out of my head.  Tiktok seems like a good place for these sort of in progress posts, almost like one of those Star Trek personal/ship’s logs.Game Design Concept https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdB6DefS/

Saw this awesome slide from a GDC talk and had to share.Here's the GDC talk: 

Last night, Abner announced on his Twitch stream that Jai is close to beta release. He showed a list of items that Jon Blow and the Jia Team have agreed need to be completed and then they will release the beta. No date or timeline was specified but based on the visible todo list, it is my opinion, this will happen before the end of the year. I'm pretty excited for this to happen. ...

By Robert FrostTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning ...

Today is a special day for me. It is Day 1 of my Indie adventure! I’m pretty excited and a bit scared!I'll be blogging about my experience, and I think I'll do some streaming as well.  I haven't made any solid decisions at this point and this was intentional.  I'm a bit burned out from my day job and I need some time to rest and rejuvenate.  I don't want to make any decisions until those stres...

I'll be participating in Ludum Dare 41!  Pretty excited to use Godot for the first time! I might make some posts over on ldjam.com : MrPhil's Ludum Dare 41 DevLogs

I went on a old hard drive adventure this evening. My quest was to recover my code and executable from Ludum Dare 13 - Roads, from way back in December of 2008! It wasn't easy but I was successful. I've posted the code to github: https://github.com/MrPhil/LudumDare13_IronRoads and the executable to itch.io: https://mrphilgames.itch.io/ld13-iron-roads This entry was incomplete, but it had a lot...

I'm going to try my hand at pixel art.  Here's my first piece:

I participated in Ludum Dare 40 this weekend!  The theme was "The more you have, the worse it is."I've spent a lot of my spare time in November learning Game Maker 2 by trying to build a Tower Defense game. So, when the theme was announced I immediately thought, that sounds like a Tower Defense game!  So, that's what I made.  You play as a mage who’s been imprisoned in a maze built as a prison...

Ludum Dare is coming soon, Dec 1 and occasionally I like to use new techs during the jam. So, I’ve decided to try Gamemaker 2 this time. And in preparation for that I’m going to make a Tower Defence game as a warm up exercise and to familiarize myself with Gamemaker 2. 

I attended Unity’s Conference, Unite, in Austin this year. There are a lot of interesting improvements coming down the pipeline but nothing ground shaking. I think the biggest announcement was for artists: direct integration with Autodesk’s Maya and Max. Other things I’m looking forward to are: the integration of TextMesh Pro the new Asset Bundle system the new Entity framework the 2D...

It isn't a game, but I made this interesting looking thing, a sort of moving fractal. I know my Grandpa would have thought it was cool because he loved math and fractals where one of the things that drew him to computers. The fractals he made didn't move, but he did use color animation to give it the feeling of moving, but this kind of movement would is like a whole new world.

Update: Unity has announced some changes here: http://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/06/16/evolution-of-our-products-and-pricing/  I've made edits below to reflect them. There will not be a Unity 6, just continual improvements. All Platforms All Royalty Free All Engine Features Personal will remain free, limits revenue to $100,000 a year and you must show a Made With Unity splash screen. P...

I watched Jonathan Blow's talk How To Design Deep Games with Jonathan Blow which is actually kind of a misleading title because the talk is about the concept of "Deep Work" and how to sustain work on a long project.  This is one of those talks where you need to watch it a few times, so these notes are probably not capturing the full picture. What is "Deep Work"? Changes you, you are a diffe...

I watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi on Jonathan Blow's recommendation, he calls it an example of "Deep Work." Jiro Ono makes sushi, and has been doing it for 75 years. Jiro has seemingly limitless passion and commitment to the craft of sushi. He is on a literal life long journey exploring, reaching, testing and experimenting with all elements of what great, perfect sushi IS. He pursues this perfecti...

Jonathan Blow did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit Friday: I am Jonathan Blow, game development person; ask me stuff.I was specifically interesting in advice type tidbits, here are my notes.Who Is Jonathan Blow?Game designer and programmer for the games Braid and The Witness; Partner in angle investor Indie Fund; And creator of programming JAI. Wikipedia Twitter Homepage YouTube What advise...

Just a little something I've been messing with. #LogicGates #NANDToRuleThemAll pic.twitter.com/iIx7zaOUxl— MrPhil (@xMrPhil) January 21, 2016

I decided to do an experiment this month and make some Let's Play YouTube videos.  I'm playing Crusader Kingdoms 2 with the Horse Lords DLC and playing House Dulo, the Khan of Bolghar who is related to the King of Bulgaria.  Here's the playlist: Horse Lords of BolgharI'm up to 70 total videos now and my Let's Code, Following Catlike Coding's Tutorial Swirly Pipe, Part 1 , is still the most po...